Severe thunderstorms barrel through Georgia

It was a rough night for many people across north Georgia on Tuesday as severe thunderstorms moved through the state.

The powerful line of storms moved into the state during the late afternoon and early evening hours leaving behind quite a bit of damage. At the height of the storm more than 27,000 thousand Georgia Power customers were without power.

When this storm barreled through Cobb County, it was packed with lightning. Fire officials are blaming at least one blaze on lightning. FOX 5’s Denise Dillion was out on Cowen Road in Acworth as fire crews worked to put out the fire. The residents inside said they were shaken when lightning struck the home, but were okay.

A little further south in Marietta, the storm caused trees to snap at their trunks, sending them down over roadways. FOX 5 News arrived at a home on Caisson Drive to find a tree narrowly missed a home. Large limbs were scattered across the driveway. Thankfully, no one was hurt there either.

In northeast Atlanta, a tree came down a car trapping a driver inside for about a half hour. It happened near Flagler Avenue and Montgomery Ferry Drive. Driver Scott Slade said he was stopped at a red light when it came down.

“All this wind started kicking up. And apparently a lightning strike or something hit a tree. And as soon as the limbs started hitting my car, I just lunged my body over to the passenger side. And the tree just came down around, right on top of my hood,” Scott Slade described.

Rescue crews were able to free him within a half hour. Slade was not injured.

The sirens on the Emory University campus went off Tuesday night. The school issued its own tornado warning for the campus even though the National Weather Service never issued such a warning anywhere in Georgia. Emory later tweeted it issued the warning in what it said was an abundance of caution based on an alert from its private weather service.

Viewers sent the FOX 5 Storm Team photos of the storm. Many captured the great light show that came along with the storm. For one Clark Atlanta University graduate, the lightning came a little too close. He was giving a video report when a bolt of lightning struck a little too close for comfort.

The FOX 5 Storm Team always emphasizes to only take pictures and videos if you can do it safely.